Wagoner County Deputies Wear Purple To Raise Domestic Violence Awareness During October

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and Wagoner County Sheriff’s deputies and investigators are wearing purple all month to raise awareness and show support for victims. 

Domestic violence calls are the number one call they get, and they’ve already responded to nearly 400 of them this year.

Along with the deputies and investigators wearing purple, the courthouse and sheriff’s office will be lit up purple a every night this month. Investigators say it’s important domestic violence victims know they can come forward and will be supported.

Deputies are wearing purple badges, purple back plates, purple bracelets and putting purple ribbons on their patrol cars. Investigators will be wearing purple shirts, all to bring attention to domestic violence.

“It’s an epidemic in this county, it’s an epidemic everywhere, but Wagoner County sees a tremendous amount of domestic violence and we’ve got to figure out something to do to try to bring more awareness to it, so we can bring more resources to it. And hopefully somehow bring down the numbers and make more people aware and more people okay with coming forward," said Investigator Jake Carey. 

Investigator Carey handles all domestic violence cases for Wagoner County and has worked nearly 200 cases since the start of the year. He sent half those cases to the district attorney’s office for charges and would like that number to be higher, but domestic violence cases can be tough, especially when victims don’t want to testify or get scared and back out. 

“People are embarrassed, they feel like nothing is going to happen. So, there’s a lot of untrust right now and that’s another reason for this initiative right now is we want people to know they can come forward, we are working very hard to try and get these issues addressed," said Carey. 

Carey works with the non-profit Help in Crisis, which helps victims with whatever they need. He says wearing purple is a way for deputies and investigators to connect with people in the community and show victims, they are not alone.

“Even on the traffic stops we’ve had some people say what’s the purple for? And it gives our guys an opportunity to say we are trying to bring awareness to domestic violence. It also gives them the ability at that point, in a rare occasion they can actually provide resources to someone that says they might need them,” said Carey. 

If you or someone you know is a domestic violence victim you can call the sheriff’s office at 918-485-3124 or you can file a report online.